Hello,
I'm looking forward to participate in this forum. I found it while searching for a linux-based software interpreter for a Globalsat BU353 GPS receiver (... found! OpenCPN!) and decided to stay. Looks like this forum is the seafarers' answer to the Oracle at Delphi!

I guess you can view my as yet very basic info by clicking my avatar? The picture is of Yours Truly from last summer, a fun trip with 2 friends/ crew, slightly frazzled after Special Coffee and right before the pic was taken, getting mixed up in a regatta in Oslo harbour with boats twice as fast as Polly (most are). She's a bluewaterboat, designed and built for the England-Azores-back race, so she's pretty seaworthy and steady with a sky high freeboard and a weight of about 2 tons of which 1 ton is made up by the massive keel. I'm really pinin' after taking her into seas she was built for; the Oslo fjord doesn't quite deliver in that regard.

Welcome to Cruisers' Forum, Skipper Solo! We're glad to have you aboard! You will find a wealth of information and camraderie here. I have my own selfish reasons for being glad you're here, because I am planning to sail to Iceland this summer from the English South Coast, and I'm thinking about stopping off in Norway on the way. So your local knowledge may be in demand! The sailors around here who have visited say it is a magical, fabulous place to sail!

Welcome to Cruisers' Forum, Skipper Solo! We're glad to have you aboard! You will find a wealth of information and camraderie here. I have my own selfish reasons for being glad you're here, because I am planning to sail to Iceland this summer from the English South Coast, and I'm thinking about stopping off in Norway on the way. So your local knowledge may be in demand! The sailors around here who have visited say it is a magical, fabulous place to sail!

Thank you very much!. Where I live at the moment isn't very magical - the locals wax lyrical about the qualities of the Oslo fjord/south coast, but it's rather pedestrian and dull compared to Up North, imo.

If you plan to go to Iceland, stopping by here (Oslo) is quite a roundabout route. Also, the cost of living is quite high here; your jaw will drop when you pay for your first lager. If these two factors don't discourage you, I do know a couple of free spots for short-term laytos. And where you may get the most out of your pub budget.

New member from Oslo in Norway
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Oslo in Norway. Can't be

I thought that Oslo is in Bangladesh

Well it will be, afterThe Pole Shift... It is known what assumptions are the mother of, and given that one in four Americans allegedly can't find their own country on a map, I thought it safest to err on the side of redundancy. My bad.

Thank you very much!. Where I live at the moment isn't very magical - the locals wax lyrical about the qualities of the Oslo fjord/south coast, but it's rather pedestrian and dull compared to Up North, imo.

If you plan to go to Iceland, stopping by here (Oslo) is quite a roundabout route. Also, the cost of living is quite high here; your jaw will drop when you pay for your first lager. If these two factors don't discourage you, I do know a couple of free spots for short-term laytos. And where you may get the most out of your pub budget.

No, I was thinking about the North coast, not Oslo, which of course would be terribly roundabout.

One friend of mine just spent a few weeks of vacation travelling (by land) around the North coast -- confirmed "magical" and also "hellaciously expensive". But we are self-sufficient -- won't need to buy much.

Also, I live in the one place in Europe, further East, which is even more expensive than Norway, so nothing could shock me in that regard

No, I was thinking about the North coast, not Oslo, which of course would be terribly roundabout.

One friend of mine just spent a few weeks of vacation travelling (by land) around the North coast -- confirmed "magical" and also "hellaciously expensive". But we are self-sufficient -- won't need to buy much.

Also, I live in the one place in Europe, further East, which is even more expensive than Norway, so nothing could shock me in that regard

Bringing a few sacks of rice, ample amounts of fresh water and fishinggear such as http://bit.ly/wr0W1z can make the trip cost very little. And aye - the nature "up there" is spectacular to say the least. My favourite area is the west coast of Senja ("yttersia" in the vernacular) of which you can find excellent pictures at The colors of Senja - Reiner Schaufler . The bees knees is the old fishing village Hamn in Bergsfjorden (Hamn i Senja - Hamn i Senja) which archipelago is an unmitigated fairytale of crystal clear water with lots of fish and off-white coral beaches. A bit further out to sea is popular feeding grounds for orcas, and huge sea eagles are a common sight. Errr... I have to stop before I begin to sound like a PR agent for the place!